Funzie Girt dyke
| Funzie Girt | |
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Vord Hill from the west. Funzie Girt dyke runs along the side of the hill at about 90 metres (295 ft) above sea level.
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 Funzie Girt
 Funzie Girt shown within Shetland |
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| OS grid reference | HU620938 |
| Coordinates | 60°37′23″N 0°52′05″W / 60.623°N 0.868°WCoordinates: 60°37′23″N 0°52′05″W / 60.623°N 0.868°W |
Funzie Girt (/ˈfɪni ɡɜːrt/;Scots: Funyie Girt "Finns' dyke") is an ancient dividing wall that was erected from north to south across the island of Fetlar in Shetland, Scotland. Some sources describe it as having been built in the Neolithic, but the date of construction is not certainly known. The line of the wall, which ran for over 4 kilometres (2.5 mi), once divided the island in two almost equal sections. Also known as the Finnigirt Dyke, it has vanished in places at the southern end, although the ruins are clearly visible along much of the uninhabited north of the island, where it is a conspicuous feature of the landscape. The dyke's original purpose is not known, nor is its relationship to other archaeological sites of a similar age nearby. There are various folk tales about its construction, and it is the subject of various pieces of Shetland folk music.
The name "Funzie Girt" means "Finns' dyke", the Finns being the legendary pre-Norse inhabitants of the islands who were said to possess magical powers. (The later Iron Age inhabitants of the Northern Isles were actually Pictish, although the historical record is fairly sparse.) The variation between Finn and Funzie is due to widespread confusion of the letter ȝ (yogh) with the cursive form of the letter z. An earlier name for the dyke was simply "Finnigord" and Finnigirt dyke is thus tautologous as gord already means "dyke".
The dyke could have had a role in the naming of Fetlar itself. The division of the island by the dyke was so marked that the Norse seemed to treat Fetlar as two distinct islands—which they called "Est Isle" and "Wast Isle". Haswell-Smith (2004) suggests that the derivation of the name is from fetill, the Old Norse for a "strap" or a "tie", and that Fetlar could therefore mean "two islands tied together" by the dyke. Gammeltoft (2010) however, argues that fetlar actually means "shoulder-straps", that this description is hardly an obvious one for an island name and Fetlar is thus most probably a Norse adaptation of a precursor language. This was probably the Pictish language although there is no unequivocal evidence for this.
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